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Page 1: EMPLOYEE WORK ENGAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATIONAL · PDF fileemployee work engagement and organizational commitment: a comparative study of private and public sector organizations in ghana

European Journal of Business and Innovation Research

Vol.1, No.4, pp.20-33, December 2013

Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK(www.ea-journals.org)

20

EMPLOYEE WORK ENGAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT:

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PRIVATE AND PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANIZATIONS

IN GHANA

Collins Badu Agyemang

Faculty of Management, Department of Business Administration, University of Professional

Studies, Accra

Samuel Batchison Ofei

Faculty of Management, Department of Business Administration, University of Professional

Studies, Accra

ABSTRACT: Employee engagement remains a relatively virgin area especially in the Sub-

Saharan region. The present study investigated employee work engagement and organizational

commitment using a comparative approach of private and public sector employees in Ghana.

One hundred and five (105) employees of three public and three private organizations with

analogous characteristics in the Accra Metropolis of Ghana were purposively sampled. Four

hypotheses were tested. Pearson product-moment correlation and Independent t-test were the

statistical tools used in analyzing the data collected. The findings of the study revealed a

significant positive relationship between employee engagement and employee commitment.

Employees of private organizations have a higher level of employee engagement and

organizational commitment than employees in public organizations, and long-tenured and short-

tenured employees did not differ in commitment levels. The findings of this study are discussed

with reference to the reviewed literature, Job Demand-Resources Model and Social Exchange

Theory. The present study points out the need for employees to be provided with resources

needed to perform their work roles since it has consequential effects on employee engagement

and organizational commitment.

Keywords: Employee Engagement, Organizational Commitment, Job Demand-Resources

Model, Social Exchange Theory, Accra Metropolis, Ghana.

INTRODUCTION

Employee engagement has received a great deal of attention in the last decade in academic

circles. However, the concept remains new with relatively little academic research conducted on

it (Saks, 2006) especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. According to Catlette and Hadden (2001),

employee engagement refers to the positive, affective psychological work-related state of mind

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European Journal of Business and Innovation Research

Vol.1, No.4, pp.20-33, December 2013

Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK(www.ea-journals.org)

21

that leads employees to actively express and invest themselves emotionally, cognitively, and

physically in their role performance. Engaged employees work harder, are more likely to go

above the requirements and expectations of their work (Lockwood, 2007). Engaged employees

also tend to feel that their work actually positively affects their physical and psychological well-

being (Crabtree, 2005). Researchers commonly describe engaged employees as individuals who

are highly energized and resilient in performing their job; put their heart into their jobs with

persistence and willingness to invest effort; exhibit strong work involvement along with

experiencing feelings of significance, enthusiasm, passion, inspiration, pride, excitement, and

challenge from their work; and fully concentrate and immerse themselves in their work without

noticing that time passes (Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004). Employee engagement has also been

linked to customer satisfaction, retention, and loyalty (Bates, 2004), and also to a good

relationship with co-workers (Vance, 2006). Employee engagement has become an overnight

sensation in the business consulting world for its statistical relationship with variables such as

job involvement, job satisfaction, organizational citizenship behavior and employee commitment

(Little & Little, 2006) and in effect productivity and profitability (Buckingham & Coffman,

1999). Managers want to improve staff engagement because this tends to lead to staff

performance, reduces staff turnover and improves the well-being of employees (Wright &

Cropanzano, 2000). The concept of employee engagement is currently in its early stage hence the

need for more rigorous studies (Saks, 2006) to unearth its theoretical underpinnings and practical

application, along with its antecedents and consequences. However, very little is known about

the relationship between employee work engagement and commitment. They also commit

themselves to specific individuals, including their spouses, children, parents and siblings, as well

as to their employers, co-workers, supervisors and customers (Vance, 2006).

Little and Little (2006) defined Organizational commitment as the degree to which an individual

identifies with an organization and is committed to its goals. Whiles employee engagement refers

to an employee’s loyalty and commitment to his work, organizational commitment refers to an

employee’s loyalty and commitment to his organization. Dessler, (1999) sees organizational

commitment as crucial to individual performance in modern organizations that require greater

self-management than in the past when employees were constantly supervised. While Mowday,

Porter and Steers (1982) used types of bond between employees and organization to classify

organizational commitment into attitudinal commitment and behavioral commitment, Meyer and

Allen (1997) operationalized three facets of commitment based on three distinct themes:

affective, continuance, and normative commitment. Affective commitment refers to an

employee’s personal attachment to, identification with, and involvement in the organization he

works, resulting in a strong belief in the organization’s goals and values and exerting extra effort

on behalf of the organization. Because commitment requires an investment of time as well as

physical, mental and emotional energy, most people make them with the expectation of

reciprocation or to reciprocate a benefit. That is, people assume that in exchange for their

commitment, they will get something of value in return such as favors, affection, gifts, attention,

goods, money and property.

Traditionally, employees and employers have made a tacit agreement: In exchange for workers’

commitment, organizations would provide forms of value for employees, such as needed

resources, secure jobs and fair compensation. Reciprocity affects the intensity of a commitment.

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European Journal of Business and Innovation Research

Vol.1, No.4, pp.20-33, December 2013

Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK(www.ea-journals.org)

22

When an entity or individual to whom someone has made a commitment fails to come through

with the expected exchange, the commitment erodes (Vance, 2006). Most private organizations

in Ghana especially educational institutions are known to offer several incentives and packages

than the public organizations. These include free transportation, mortgage facilities, free medical

care and free teacher’s child education (Acheampong, 2003). The present study will provide

organizations in Ghana with indigenous empirical evidence needed to develop and implement

policies and practices that foster engagement and commitment in their workforce.

Recent dramatic changes in the global economic downturn have had significant implications for

commitment and reciprocity between employers and employees and thus for employee

engagement. It has spurred today’s organizations to compete by cutting prices and costs, refining

business processes and delay ring management structures. Scarce and costly resources have

prompted organizations to reduce resources given to employees to perform their tasks (Vance,

2006) hence reducing employee engagement and consequently organizational commitment.

Organizations in Ghana, being susceptible to the global economy, also suffer this fate, hence the

need to investigate the interaction of dedication to one’s job (employee engagement) and to one’s

organization (organizational commitment). Unfortunately, in spite of the importance and

complexity of these issues, there is very limited good quality literature on this interaction (Sak,

2006) especially in the Ghanaian context.

Objectives of the Study

To ascertain the extent to which employee engagement relates to organizational

commitment.

To find out the differences in the engagement and commitment levels of employees from

public and private sector organizations.

To investigate whether long-tenured employees will have higher levels of organizational

commitment than short-tenured employees.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Theoretical Underpinnings

The Job Demand-Resources (JD-R) model (Maslach & Jackson, 1986) and the social exchange

theories (Blau, 1964) were employed to explain the relationship between employee engagement

and organizational commitment. The JD-R theory assumes that every job is associated with

certain physiological or psychological costs or demands. Job resources on the other hand are the

physical, psychological and organizational aspects of a job that help employees’ complete tasks

successfully and achieve work goals; as those resources provide basic human needs and foster

employee growth, learning, and development (Houkes, Janssen, Jonge, & Nijhuis, 2001).

According to the JD-R theory, job resources may buffer the impact of job demands on the

employee (Maslach & Jackson, 1986). Social exchange theory (Blau) assumes that

employees tend to act in ways that reflects their organizations or managers treatment

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European Journal of Business and Innovation Research

Vol.1, No.4, pp.20-33, December 2013

Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK(www.ea-journals.org)

23

(Agyemang, 2013). Employees are motivated to compensate beneficial treatment from the

employer by acting in ways valued by the organization (Agyemang, 2013; Eisenberger, Armeli,

Rexwinkel, Lynch & Rhoades, 2001). An assumption underling the social exchange theory is the

idea of reciprocity where both parties adopt a contingent approach; one parties gives benefit

based on previous contribution by the other party therefore adhering to the norm of reciprocity

and reciprocation of benefit (Coyle-Shapiro & Shore, 2007).

Combining these two theories, employees who are engaged actively in their organization may

have a feeling of obligation to respond and repay the organization in some form (Cohen, 2000).

One way for employees to repay their organization is to increase commitment to the organization

(Cropanzano & Mitchell, 2005). Hence an employee with a high level of engagement is likely to

be committed to the organization that provides him with the necessary resources to complete his

tasks. Favorable reciprocal exchanges are thus expected.

Related Studies

Saks (2006) in an empirical study to test a model of the antecedents and consequences of job and

organization engagements based on social exchange theory, surveyed 102 employees working in

a variety of jobs and organizations in Canada. Findings indicated that there is a meaningful

difference between job and organization engagements and that perceived organizational support

predicts employee engagement as well as job characteristics predicts employee engagement.

Findings also showed that engagement mediated the relationships between the antecedents and

job satisfaction, organizational commitment, intentions to quit, and organizational citizenship

behavior. The study was however limited in its attempt to generalize to other settings because of

demographic composition of the sample and the setting. Schaufeli and Bakker (2004) in their

study focused on burnout and engagement. Structural equation modeling was used to

simultaneously analyze data from four independent occupational samples made up of 1698

people. Results confirmed that: burnout and engagement are negatively related; burnout is

mainly predicted by job demands and also by lack of job resources, whereas engagement is

exclusively predicted by available job resources. Hakanen, Bakker and Schaufeli (2006), found

that work engagement mediated the effects of job resources on organizational commitment and

burnout mediated the effects of lacking resources on poor engagement. However, the

socioeconomic, cultural and political context of the study also makes it difficult to generalize the

study to other contexts, for example, the Ghanaian context. Chughtai and Zafar, (2006) also

conducted a study with the purpose of determining if selected personal characteristics, facets of

job satisfaction and organizational justice influence organizational justice of Pakistani University

teachers. The study also examined the influence of organizational commitment on job

performance and turnover intensions. Data was collected from 125 full-time teachers in 33

universities in Pakistan. The results of the study indicated that facets of job satisfaction and

organizational justice were significantly related to organizational commitment. Also, personal

characteristics such as age, tenure of service, marital status and educational level were found to

be unrelated to organizational commitment. Narteh (2012) in his study of internal marketing and

employee commitment surveyed 410 employees of banks in Ghana and investigated four internal

marketing practices- empowerment, rewards, training and development, and communication and

their impact on employee commitment in the retail banking industry. The results indicated that,

with the exception of communication, the factors are positively associated with employee

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European Journal of Business and Innovation Research

Vol.1, No.4, pp.20-33, December 2013

Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK(www.ea-journals.org)

24

commitment. The study concludes that in order to influence employee behavior in the banking

industry in Ghana, bank management must implement measures that provide direct benefit to

employees. This study, even though based in the Ghanaian context applies only to the banking

sector.

Reichers (1986) for instance argued that new comers in organizations may not have acquainted

themselves with the organizations structural procedures leading to low levels of OCB. Organ’s

concluded that employees demonstrate a wide variety of OCB more often upon reaching higher

levels in the organization. However, Agyemang (2013) with a sample of 152 found no significant

relationship between bankers’ Organizational Tenure and OCB in the Ghanaian context due to

the prevailing economic situation. On a similar note, Chughtai and Zafar (2006) indicated that

personal characteristics such as age, tenure of service, marital status and educational level were

not related to organizational commitment. Studies on tenure of service and work attitudes remain

inconsistent.

Despite the enormous advances in understanding how best to conceptualize, measure and

manage engagement, recent research and reviews of the state of play of employee engagement, a

number of issues yet to be fully resolved have been identified (Bakker, Albrecht & Leiter, 2011).

For example more research is needed to ascertain the influence that employee engagement exerts

on organizational commitment (Albrecht, 2010). To the best of the researchers search, no

research has examined the relationship between employee engagements on organizational

commitment in Ghana. This study therefore attempts to bridge this gap and further deepen

understanding in this area by comparing employees from the public and private sector

organizations in Ghana.

Hypotheses

H1: There will be a significant positive relationship between employee engagement and

organizational commitment.

H2: Employees of private organizations will have a higher level of organizational

commitment than employees in public organizations.

H3: Employees of private organizations will have a higher level of employee engagement

than employees in public organizations

H4: Employees with a long tenure of service will have a higher level of organizational

commitment than employees with short tenure of service.

Operational Definition of Terms

Tenure of Service: How long an employee has been working for his/her current

organization or employer

Low tenure of service: Day1-3years of continual work for one’s current organization

High tenure of service: above 3years of continual work for one’s current organization.

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European Journal of Business and Innovation Research

Vol.1, No.4, pp.20-33, December 2013

Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK(www.ea-journals.org)

25

Public organization: Organizations owned by the government or state

Private organization: Organizations owned by the private individual(s)

Commitment: degree to which an individual identifies with an organization and is

committed to its goals.

Engagement: the degree to which an individual is fully involved in and is enthusiastic

about his/her work.

METHOD

Research Design The perceptions of respondents were appropriately studied using cross-sectional survey. This is

because respondents’ characteristics were studied at a single point in time. Cross sectional

surveys have been described as snapshots of the populations about which a researcher gather data

(Aron & Aron, 1999). In the present study, data was collected at a single point for each

participant studied.

Sample and Sampling Techniques

The population of the study was workers in both public and private organizations within the

Accra metropolis as it represents the seat of most administrative and business capital of the

nation and structurally suitable with respect to conducting of the study. Respondents for the

study were made up of 105 employees, 59 from private institutions and 46 from public

institutions. Convenient sampling was used to select respondents from targeted public and

private organizations. Respondents were sampled irrespective of their age, marital status, religion

and educational level. These organizations were chosen as pairings with similar structures,

interest, policies, goals and business strength.

Instruments

A three section questionnaire was used. The first section of the questionnaire consisted of 5 items

inquiring about demographic characteristics of respondents such as employees’ gender, level of

education, tenure of office, category of organization. Employee engagement was assessed with

an adapted version of Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) (Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004).

The 9-item UWES assesses three underlying dimensions of employee engagement: vigor,

dedication, and absorption. A total score of 9 - 31 on the UWES indicated a low score whereas a

total score of 32 – 63 indicated a high score. Respondents in this study rated each item on a 7-

point Likert scale ranging from never (1) to always (7). The scale included statements such as

“my job inspires me” and “I feel happy when I am working intensely”. The questionnaire has a

Cronbach alpha score of .94

The third section was an adapted 15 item Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ) by

Mowday, Steers and Porter (1979). This 15 item questionnaire required the respondents to

answer each item on a 7 point rating scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The

Cronbach’s alpha for this scale is .90 (Mowday, Steers & Porter, 1979). A total score of 15 - 52

on the Organizational Commitment scale indicated a low score, whereas a total score of 53 – 105

indicated a high score.

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European Journal of Business and Innovation Research

Vol.1, No.4, pp.20-33, December 2013

Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK(www.ea-journals.org)

26

Procedure for Data Collection

Introductory letters and a set of questionnaires were distributed to selected organizations. This

served as a means of acquiring permission to undertake the research in the selected

organizations. Upon acquisition of a written permission, willing respondents were selected from

the selected companies and given self-administered questionnaires to fill. The questionnaires

were interpreted where necessary. The administering of questionnaires lasted for one week. One

hundred and five (105) of out of one hundred and twenty (120) questionnaires were returned,

representing a response rate of 88%.

Pilot Study

An initial study was carried out to ascertain the suitability and lucidity on the items of the

research instruments used. The instruments were pre-tested using a pre-determined sample of

25respondents drawn from both private and public organizations other than those organizations

used for the actual study. Per the recommendation of Nunnally (1978), all the reliability values

of the instruments met the required threshold. The reliability values and category of scale used is

shown in the table below.

Instrument Number of Items Alpha .

Work Engagement 9 .78

Organizational Commitment 15 .83

RESULTS

All analyses were done with the aid of statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 16

at a 95% confidence interval.

Table 1: Summary of Demographic Characteristics

Demographic

Characteristics N

Percentages

%

Sex

Male 53 50.5

Female 52 49.5

TOTAL 105 100

Educational Background

Basic 0 0

Secondary/Vocational 0 0

Tertiary 105 100

TOTAL 105 100

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European Journal of Business and Innovation Research

Vol.1, No.4, pp.20-33, December 2013

Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK(www.ea-journals.org)

27

Organization

Pubic/Government 46 43.8

Private 59 56.2

TOTAL 105 100

Tenure of Service

Short Tenured-Employees 57 54.3

Long Tenured-Employees 48 45.7

Total 105 100.00

Hypotheses Testing

The first hypothesis (H1) sought to investigate the extent to which employee engagement is

related with organizational commitment. This hypothesis was investigated using Pearson

product-moment correlation coefficient. Summary of the results are presented in Table 2 below.

Table 2: Pearson Product-Moment Correlation between Employee Engagement and

Organizational Commitment

Measures N Mean Std.

Deviation

r p

Organizational

Commitment

105 5.929 1.342 0.520 0.000

Employee

Engagement

105 5.281 1.021

From Table 2 above, there is a significant positive relationship between employee engagement

and organizational commitment [r(103)=0.520, p<0.05].

The second hypothesis examined differences in the organizational commitment scores with

respect to organizations. Independents’ Samples t test was used to test the hypothesis. Summary

of the results are presented in Table 3 below.

Table 3: Summary of Independent t test results of Organizational Commitment categorized

by Organizations

Organizations N Mean SD df t p

Organizational

commitment Public 46 5.554 1.484 103 -2.592 .011

Private 59 6.220 1.150

From Table 3 above, employees of private organizations have a higher level of organizational

commitment than employees of public organizations [t(103)=-2.592, p<0.011].

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European Journal of Business and Innovation Research

Vol.1, No.4, pp.20-33, December 2013

Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK(www.ea-journals.org)

28

An Independent Samples t test was used to analyse the third hypothesis which examined

differences in the employee engagement scores with respect to organizations. Summary of the

results are presented in Table 4 below.

Table 4: Summary of Independent t test results of Employee Engagement categorized by

Organizations

Organizations N Mean SD df t p

Employee

Engagement

Public 46 4.989 1.123 103 -2.660 .009

Private 59 5.509 0.878

From Table 4 above, the hypothesis that employees of private organizations will have a higher

level of employee engagement than employees of public organizations is supported by the

analysis [t(103)=-2.660, p<0.009].

Hypothesis four examined the extent to which long and long tenure of service compares in

predicting organizational commitment. Summary of the results are presented in Tables 5 below.

Table 5: Summary of Independent t test results, Means and Standard Deviations for

Organizational Commitment categorized by Tenure of Service

Tenure of Service N Mean SD df t p

Organizational

Commitment Short 57 5.965 1.362 . 103 .764 .301

Long 48 5.885 1.329

As depicted from Table 5 above, employees with a long tenure of service do not have a higher

level of organizational commitment than employees with short tenure of service [t(103)=.764,

p>0.05] .

Summary of Main Findings

There is a positive significant relationship between employee engagement and

organizational commitment

Employees of private organizations have a higher level of organizational commitment

than employees of public organizations

Employees of private organizations have a higher level of employee engagement than

employees of public organizations

Long-tenured employees did not differ in commitment levels from short-tenured

employees in the Ghanaian setting

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European Journal of Business and Innovation Research

Vol.1, No.4, pp.20-33, December 2013

Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK(www.ea-journals.org)

29

DISCUSSION

The study adopted a comparative approach to study employee work engagement and

organizational commitment. The first hypothesis that there will be a positive significant

relationship between employee engagement and organizational commitment was supported by

the analysis. This finding implies that employees who are given the necessary resources by their

organizations to perform their tasks effectively tend to respond favourably to the organizations

they are committed to. This finding is consistent with results from a study conducted by Saks

(2006) when he established that engagement of employees mediated the relationships between

the antecedents and job satisfaction, organizational commitment, intentions to quit the job, and

organizational citizenship behavior. The study finding also corroborates findings of Hakanen,

Bakker and Schaufeli (2006), which established that work engagement mediated the effects of

job resources on organizational commitment. The reason for the result can be explained with the

Job Demand-Resources (JD-R) model (Maslach & Jackson, 1986) and the social exchange

theory (Blau, 1964). These theories portend that employees who receive socioeconomic

resources from their organization are obliged to respond and repay their organizations in some

form leading to an increased commitment toward the organization. From the Ghanaian

perspective, getting engaged in any given role signifies better interaction (in this case between

employer-employee) and yields positive work outcomes (Badu & Asumeng, 2013).

Employees of private organizations had a higher level of engagement and organizational

commitment than employees in public organizations. These findings are consistent with

Acheampong’s (2003) conclusion that most private organizations are known to offer several

incentives and packages to keep their members performing higher compared to public

organizations. The result can be explained with Job Demand-Resources (JD-R) model and the

social exchange theory; where employees who receive socioeconomic resources from their

organizations in the performance of their jobs tend to invest themselves cognitively, emotionally

and physically in their role performance. In other words, they become engaged. It is interesting

to mention that many employees in the public sector of Ghana are known to hold on tightly to the

slogan “Public work we drag; Private work we carry’’. It may be quite fascinating, but this

slogan reflects on the strong link between the extent to which employees in the public sector

reciprocate the treatment and amount of resources given them by their employers. Why do the

latter “carry” their work? This act by employees of the private sector depicts the pros of igniting

in employees the strong desire to identify with their organizations. Management of most private

institutions are demonstrate a high sense of interactional fairness in Ghana and this yield many

positive work outcomes such as organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) (Badu & Asumeng,

2013).

No significant positive relationship was found between employees’ tenure of service and level of

employee commitment. Therefore the results clearly indicate that the number of years an

employee has been working (long or short) with his/her current organization does not influence

his/her commitment to that organization from the Ghanaian setting. This finding is inconsistent

with some researches (eg. Meyer & Allen, 1997), who suggested that as an employee’s tenure of

service in a particular company increases; employees tend to develop an emotional attachment

with their organization. They also argued that uncommitted employees tend to leave the

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European Journal of Business and Innovation Research

Vol.1, No.4, pp.20-33, December 2013

Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK(www.ea-journals.org)

30

organization leaving behind committed employees, and hence it is logical to establish that tenure

of service is positively related to organizational commitment. The present finding however,

corroborates with Agyemang (2013) who also established no significant relationship between

Ghanaian bankers’ tenure and OCB. Thus, in agreeing with earlier researchers the study noted

that personal characteristics such as age, tenure of service, marital status and educational level

were not related to organizational commitment (Chughtai and Zafar 2006). One possible

explanation to the above finding in the Ghanaian setting is the high rate of unemployment in the

Ghana. Most employees conceive in their mind before employment, the desire to become glued

to their first employers once employed. This is an attempt to get permanent employment in the

case of the newly employed (Agyemang, 2013) and to avert the possibility of being victimized

through downsizing or dismissal in the case of concurrent employees. According to Agyemang

(2013), the unavailability of jobs prevents many Ghanaians from some negative attitudes toward

the job and organization. The degree of commitment, from casual observations in our experience

as consultants with many organizations is even strong among new graduates awaiting national

service. Some new graduates lobby for their organizations of interest before postings by the body

charged to do so. In the opinion the researchers, this desperate and unethical behaviour preempts

commitment as a lot of effort may have gone into the decision to lobby for one organization over

another.

THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE STUDY

Empirical literature on engagement especially has been deepened with the established

relationship between engagement and commitment. This study has brought to fore the variations

in the level of engagement and commitment based on sector categorization. The inconsistency of

the predictive strength of employee tenure and work outcomes is strongly deepened by the

findings of this research. Although this study primarily aimed to test theoretically-derived

hypotheses, the findings of this study do have practical implications for the policy makers and

employees. Based on the findings of this study, to increase employee engagement and in effect

organizational commitment, organizations should provide resources that foster employee growth,

learning, and development. As the JD-R model suggests and the Social exchange theory posits,

when employees work in a resourceful environment where they can get immediate support from

supervisors who serve as an embodiment of management, employees are more likely to

reciprocate in productive behaviors. Organizations should structure their selection process to

recruit applicants who possess the desired personality traits, and test high for engagement; since

this study has proven that employee engagement has a statistical relationship with organizational

commitment.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE

STUDIES

The researchers resorted to a quantitative approach to unearth the study of these variables

arguably for the first time in the Ghanaian context, but strongly advocate that a qualitative

approach be adopted to explore what actually constitute engagement which bothers on employee

behaviour. It is also recommended that future researchers strengthen these findings or otherwise

using the same setting or different so as to deepen the literature on work engagement which still

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European Journal of Business and Innovation Research

Vol.1, No.4, pp.20-33, December 2013

Published by European Centre for Research Training and Development UK(www.ea-journals.org)

31

remains virgin. Finally, a look at the tenure and commitment and possibly other work outcomes

would be appropriate as there seem to be a waft from earlier findings. Findings on employees’

tenure and commitment remain currently inconsistent.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

Employee engagement as a concept remains new with relatively little academic research

conducted on it especially from the Sub-Saharan region. Engaged employees tend to develop an

obligation to reciprocate favourably to their organization for the job resources provided, hence

developing a strong commitment to their organization. This study was strongly underpinned by

the theory social exchange. The findings of the present study point out the need for organizations

to provide employees with the necessary resources that leads to affective psychological work-

related state of mind likely to inspire employees to actively express and invest themselves

emotionally, cognitively, and physically in their role performance needed to perform their work

since it has consequential effects on the employee engagement and organizational commitment.

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Albrecht, S.L. (2010). Handbook of Employee Engagement: Perspectives, Issues, Researchand

Practice. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishers.

Allen, N. J., & Meyer, J. P. (1996). Affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the

organization: An examination of construct validity. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 49,

252-276.

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Collins Agyemang

Collins Agyemang is an Industrial and Organizational Psychologist and currently lecturing in

the University of Professional Studies, Accra. He teaches Organizational Behavior, Introduction

to Management, Human Resource Management, Research Methods and Psychology for

Business. His love and mastery over research has been an influential factor in his research

strides. He has been groomed in the field of consultancy as he worked as a partner to some

senior consultants in Industrial and Organizational Psychology Consult in Ghana. Prior to

joining academia, he served as a General Manager for Nayak Holiday Services Limited, in

Accra, where he took several initiatives to transform the company’s’ standing. His ability to

manage the diverse groups of people has been particularly noteworthy.

Samuel Batchison Ofei

Samuel Batchison Ofei’s lectureship experience has spanned courses in Marketing and Public

Administration for over a decade in the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA). Sam

is the former Dean of the Evening School at the University of Professional Studies, Accra

(UPSA). At present, he is Dean of the Management Faculty at the same university in Ghana

where he lectures in Organizational Behavior at both graduate and under-graduate levels.

Acknowledgment

Collins and Samuel will like to express their appreciation to the management of the various

organizations and the respondents who willingly provided the data for this study. We also thank

the entire UPSA Management for encouraging research among members within the university

community. We hail also the insatiable support from our family. Our ultimate thanks go to the

Supreme Being for his gift of life.